All backscatter “pornoscanners” to be removed from US airports

Rapiscan's machines are out, but its millimeter-wave competitors are staying.

Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA will be removing all of the remaining backscatter X-ray machines from US airports. The removal isn't because of health concerns—instead, the machines' manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems, failed to meet a US Congress-imposed deadline for altering the machines' software to produce "generic passenger images," according to the report.

TSA assistant administer for acquisitions Karen Shelton Waters, speaking on behalf of the agency, noted that Rapiscan Systems would absorb the cost for the scanners' removal, and that the removal is unrelated to Rapiscan's alleged falsification of the machines' abilities to protect passengers' privacy. Nor does the removal appear to be related to ongoing questions about the safety of the backscatter X-ray technology.

The CEO of OSI systems, Rapiscan's parent company, says that rather than pitching the expensive machines into the garbage bin, the TSA will be relocating them to other government agencies. In total, there are 174 Rapiscan backscatter X-ray machines that will be pulled from airports and relocated, on top of the 76 that were removed last year.

It's not the end of naked pictures at airports, though. Three other companies, including L-3 Communications, sell millimeter-wave radio-based scanners to the TSA. Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA is purchasing additional millimeter-wave scanners to help make up for the loss of Rapiscan's backscatter machines. The TSA's assistant administrator for security capabilities, John Sanders, is quick to echo Waters' words on why the backscatter scanners are being removed: "We are not pulling them out because they haven't been effective, and we are not pulling them out for safety reasons. We're pulling them out because there's a congressional mandate."

93 Reader Comments

Well, whatever the reasoning I'm glad to see them go. I can't say I like the millimeter wave machines, or think they're even necessary. But at least they seem to be somewhat safer and have been made less peep-showy.

I don't give a crap about people seeing my junk, or "health concerns", but I hate these because it takes twice as long as going through the metal detector! I thought part of the point of these was Total Recall style security, just walk right through. But no! Take *everything* out of your pocket?! stand still with you arms up?! WTF? This just takes even longer!

The security theater don't do anything anyway, at least make it as fast as possible, not slower!

One of the original programmers suggested early on making the person appear as a stick-figure or other generic figure on the image, and only highlight potential images, but was rebuked. The Congressional mandate was to do precisely that, which shouldn't be too hard to do via a software upgrade.

Instead, we're going to spend more money on new equipment that addresses neither the security nor privacy concerns, because anytime you can steal taxpayer dollars, you have to do it!

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

Well, good I suppose. But it's sad to think the cause and solution were likely the same in the end: a mandate. Not safety, not privacy, not efficiency, not efficacy, and certainly not public opinion.

We could have saved tens of millions of dollars if the general public were involved early on. Either the offensive/questionable/intrusive aspects of the system would get addressed before much money changed hands and it was implemented, or someone would have noticed that it was hopelessly unpopular and simply tried again with millimeter wave.

Well, good I suppose. But it's sad to think the cause and solution were likely the same in the end: a mandate. Not safety, not privacy, not efficiency, not efficacy, and certainly not public opinion.

That's not entirely true. The congressional mandate obviously had something to do with several of those areas--at least privacy (since that is what the mandate touched on) and it was probably driven by public opinion. I know some congressmen also questioned the safety aspect, though I don't know if that ultimately factored in to the decision.

That's how it's supposed to work. The TSA is an executive-branch agency; the checks and balances come (or more likely don't come!) via our elected representatives in Congress or from the TSA's boss, the president.

I agree that it is a shame that the machines were introduced in the first place and I would add that it's sad it took as long as it did to get to the stage of removing them, but it doesn't bother me how it arrived.

Some of the commenters didn't read the whole article. We're not getting rid of ALL scanners. No, we're getting rid of one BRAND of scanner... moving them to other government agencies, and spending a fortune BUYING FREAKING MORE TO REPLACE THEM! /facepalm

Quote:

It's not the end of naked pictures at airports, though. Three other companies, including L-3 Communications, sell millimeter-wave radio-based scanners to the TSA. Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA is purchasing additional millimeter-wave scanners help make up for the loss of Rapiscan's backscatter machines.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

You kid, but as has been pointed out even those turn into boondoggles.

A number of Federal and State projects are just pork/handouts/bribes/etc. Percentage-wise I have no idea so I can't say "a majority" or "most" or even "half", but numerically it seems like there are an awful lot of them.

Some of the commenters didn't read the whole article. We're not getting rid of ALL scanners. No, we're getting rid of one BRAND of scanner... moving them to other government agencies, and spending a fortune BUYING FREAKING MORE TO REPLACE THEM! /facepalm

Quote:

It's not the end of naked pictures at airports, though. Three other companies, including L-3 Communications, sell millimeter-wave radio-based scanners to the TSA. Bloomberg is reporting that the TSA is purchasing additional millimeter-wave scanners help make up for the loss of Rapiscan's backscatter machines.

It's not so much branding as technology - they're replacing the X-ray scanners with more MMW scanners which are already in use.

IIRC, former TSA head Michael Chertoff now works for Rapiscan..wonder if he'll find another boondoggle to get behind?

As much as I detest the scanners at least they will be used elsewhere, as opposed to the puffer machines the TSA first rolled out and then mothballed when it turned out they couldn't be properly calibrated and maintained in an airport environment...something they might have figured out if they'd done proper testing beforehand.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

So you're against the government creating jobs? You Communist.

I have no qualms with the government creating jobs. We have bridges collapsing in this country because they're not maintained/rebuilt. We could be laying fiber for fiber internet nationwide. We could be replacing our broken electricity infrastructure. If the government is going for deficit-spending, the least they could do is provide something meaningful for taxpayers in doing so.

We have a steel shortage in the US because China is buying all our steel and building tons of new schools. Why aren't we doing that?

I do have a problem with throwing money right out the window on needless pothlole patching when it is more efficient to make good roads to begin with. I spend less time in traffic. I replace fewer tires, and we have money to spend on other projects instead.

Even worse, I firmly believe (though I don't have proof off-hand) that road construction is graft and kickbacks. In my city, we are under constant construction, but the city doesn't even own construction barrels and signs. We lease them for every construction job from a local firm, even though they are literally always needed. We put up barrels and signs for all planned construction for the next few years, even if that project isn't being worked on. It creates the illusion that the government is doing more construction than they are. And it takes 10 years to re-do a single freeway entrance/exit now, when it took 10 years to build pretty much the entire interstate system to begin with.

Tax-payers are paying a fortune, and we're stuck in traffic, but we literally can't keep up with the growth of the city, so we're falling perpetually behind. In theory, they could hire more people to expedite the work, but I suspect they don't want to do that. A finished job doesn't create the illusion that more funding is needed.

Or, we could lay thicker roads (like Europe) in the first place and reduce the time we spend fixing potholes. It would save us tons of money, and reduce accidents. Saving taxpayer lives should be a concern as well, right?

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

I don't know how US roads are, but European roads DO get cracks and potholes. Maybe less often than US roads (I have no clue), but they do, trust me.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

I'm glad you point that out. 18 months ago they ripped up the road by my house all the way down to bare earth. It was a much needed and massive do over. The result was a wonderfully smooth and lovely new road. So far, so good. This year, they had extra use-it-or-lose-it funds in the coffer so they decided to re-surface a bunch of new roads city wide whether they needed it or not. Sounds great...except the part where they re-surfaced our brand new and still perfectly smooth road again....poorly. Now, that new surface they put on top of the new road (and others in town) is wearing off exposing the old-new surface...which results in a rough ride. My neighbors and I are just hoping that the entire resurfacing job wears off this winter so we can have our smooth road back.

Oh, did I mention that the city council member who fought for the resurfacing is neighbors with the contractor?

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

So you're against the government creating jobs? You Communist.

I have no qualms with the government creating jobs. We have bridges collapsing in this country because they're not maintained/rebuilt. We could be laying fiber for fiber internet nationwide. We could be replacing our broken electricity infrastructure. If the government is going for deficit-spending, the least they could do is provide something meaningful for taxpayers in doing so.

We have a steel shortage in the US because China is buying all our steel and building tons of new schools. Why aren't we doing that?

I do have a problem with throwing money right out the window on needless pothlole patching when it is more efficient to make good roads to begin with. I spend less time in traffic. I replace fewer tires, and we have money to spend on other projects instead.

Even worse, I firmly believe (though I don't have proof off-hand) that road construction is graft and kickbacks. In my city, we are under constant construction, but the city doesn't even own construction barrels and signs. We lease them for every construction job from a local firm, even though they are literally always needed. We put up barrels and signs for all planned construction for the next few years, even if that project isn't being worked on. It creates the illusion that the government is doing more construction than they are. And it takes 10 years to re-do a single freeway entrance/exit now, when it took 10 years to build pretty much the entire interstate system to begin with.

Tax-payers are paying a fortune, and we're stuck in traffic, but we literally can't keep up with the growth of the city, so we're falling perpetually behind. In theory, they could hire more people to expedite the work, but I suspect they don't want to do that. A finished job doesn't create the illusion that more funding is needed.

Or, we could lay thicker roads (like Europe) in the first place and reduce the time we spend fixing potholes. It would save us tons of money, and reduce accidents. Saving taxpayer lives should be a concern as well, right?

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

I don't know how US roads are, but European roads DO get cracks and potholes. Maybe less often than US roads (I have no clue), but they do, trust me.

European roads aren't completely without potholes, but it is a major problem here. Any American who travels abroad (including myself) is always impressed with the quality of roads in Europe. German and French roads in particular are famous for their quality.

We also know what we're doing wrong in the US, but we just don't want to fix it, even if saves money in the long run.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

You kid, but as has been pointed out even those turn into boondoggles.

A number of Federal and State projects are just pork/handouts/bribes/etc. Percentage-wise I have no idea so I can't say "a majority" or "most" or even "half", but numerically it seems like there are an awful lot of them.

If you read almost any bill you will find some kind of unrelated pork attached to it. congress needs to pass a law that forbids members of congress from attaching non-related items to any bill and nothing should be attached to funding bills like those to fund the military or bills to provide relief to disaster victims. It's disgusting that there are plenty of members of congress who pollute those bills with pork.

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

So you're against the government creating jobs? You Communist.

I have no qualms with the government creating jobs. We have bridges collapsing in this country because they're not maintained/rebuilt. We could be laying fiber for fiber internet nationwide. We could be replacing our broken electricity infrastructure. If the government is going for deficit-spending, the least they could do is provide something meaningful for taxpayers in doing so.

We have a steel shortage in the US because China is buying all our steel and building tons of new schools. Why aren't we doing that?

I do have a problem with throwing money right out the window on needless pothlole patching when it is more efficient to make good roads to begin with. I spend less time in traffic. I replace fewer tires, and we have money to spend on other projects instead.

Even worse, I firmly believe (though I don't have proof off-hand) that road construction is graft and kickbacks. In my city, we are under constant construction, but the city doesn't even own construction barrels and signs. We lease them for every construction job from a local firm, even though they are literally always needed. We put up barrels and signs for all planned construction for the next few years, even if that project isn't being worked on. It creates the illusion that the government is doing more construction than they are. And it takes 10 years to re-do a single freeway entrance/exit now, when it took 10 years to build pretty much the entire interstate system to begin with.

Tax-payers are paying a fortune, and we're stuck in traffic, but we literally can't keep up with the growth of the city, so we're falling perpetually behind. In theory, they could hire more people to expedite the work, but I suspect they don't want to do that. A finished job doesn't create the illusion that more funding is needed.

Or, we could lay thicker roads (like Europe) in the first place and reduce the time we spend fixing potholes. It would save us tons of money, and reduce accidents. Saving taxpayer lives should be a concern as well, right?

Pretty much every government appropriation ever in the U.S. from the Federal level all the way to your local municipalities is a massive boondoggle.

Yeah! Especially, like, roads. Stupid roads.

Actually, yes.

European roads are about twice as thick as US roads, so they don't crack and end up with potholes all the time. Yet we have constant construction and maintenance because we consistently screw it up the first time. The government massively overspends on road maintenance, only to disrupt drivers with constant construction and poor-quality roads that damage our cars.

That's graft and corruption exhibiting itself at most levels of our government.

Well, as far as I know European roads are also funded by a government, so not sure that's a case for the Libertarian government=bad mantra. Unless it only apply to the US?

Perhaps off-topic, but stupidity != corruption. To use the roads example, it doesn't take a postgraduate degree in theoretical mathematics to grasp that spending three times more money, to build a road that lasts ten times as long, is a good investment in the long run. But many decision-makers (and many of their constituents) only look at the short-term bottom line. If plan A costs $10k, and plan B costs $30k, and both produce superficially-similar results (i.e. a new paved road), then plan A must be better because it costs less.

Graft and corruption could explain it... but so could simple short-sighted-ness, or being really bad at math.

All that being said, IMHO, the millimeter-wave scanners are a step forward... a very, very small step, but it's something. I'd rather have the gummint using a safer ridiculously expensive mostly useless machine than a more dangerous ridiculously expensive mostly useless machine.

Sounds to me like a poor excuse to give another contractor more of our money. These old (and likely the new) machines are bullshit anyway, but we need that false sense of security so we can say we're doing something about it.

Lee Hutchinson / Lee is the Senior Reviews Editor at Ars and is responsible for the product news and reviews section. He also knows stuff about enterprise storage, security, and manned space flight. Lee is based in Houston, TX.